ALL THAT IS SAID in law and WPA regulations about discrimination against applicants for WPA jobs on the basis of color,
race, and creed also holds for discrimination because of politics.
In fact, restrictions upon political discrimination are prescribed
in even greater detail than those upon discrimination on other
grounds, which in many instances appear to be thought of as secondary and merely incidental to the one great bugaboo of Congress and the administration--politics.1

"Political Pull" an Elusive Force

The extent to which politics has or has not played a part in
placing workers on WPA jobs is, by its very nature, most difficult accurately to appraise. In the first place, it is no easy task to
define what is meant by politics. When a worker is referred to a
relief agency or the WPA for a WPA job how are "political"
referrals to be distinguished from those which social workers
even in private social agencies have long been accustomed to receive from influential board members, prominent local leaders, or
even politicians? Social workers who have had experience with
private social agencies as well as with the WPA program have
frequently emphasized the fact that the "politics" and personal
influence of board members and prominent citizens in connection
with getting benefits from private agencies are frequently more
difficult to combat than those experienced under the WPA program because in private agencies there are no safeguards com

Restrictions on political activity are not limited to favoritism or discrimination
in giving out WPA jobs but apply also to the treatment of those already employed
by the WPA. Some safeguards, such as the letters which have been sent all workers
with their pay checks from time to time (or have been posted on project sites), have
assured workers again and again that they could vote as they pleased and that how
they voted could have no effect on their WPA employment. For a typical example
of such letters and notices see WPA Release 4-2124, April 22, 1940. See also chap. 30.

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